


Buried Alive (Not Dead Yet, Boss)

by I May Age Regress (shnuffeluv)



Series: Gibbs' Family [74]
Category: NCIS
Genre: Age Play, Angst with a Happy Ending, Anniversary, Dialogue Light, Episode: s05e01 Bury Your Dead, Explosions, Gen, Non-Sexual Age Play, Not Really Character Death, Papa Bear Jethro Gibbs, Team as Family
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-06-23
Updated: 2018-06-23
Packaged: 2019-05-27 10:45:25
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 2,599
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/15022910
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/shnuffeluv/pseuds/I%20May%20Age%20Regress
Summary: One explosion can only do so much for most, but for some, it can signal the end of the world. Episode tag to Season 5 Episode 1: Bury Your Dead.Happy two years to theGibbs' FamilyUniverse!





	Buried Alive (Not Dead Yet, Boss)

Gibbs' heart hammered in his chest from the second that McGee had plugged the traffic cam feed into MTAC. DiNozzo had been on assignment and hadn't told anyone, and Gibbs could barely believe that he hadn't seen it sooner. It all made sense. The second cell phone, disappearing at random times, the fact that he was getting far more serious with a woman than Gibbs had ever seen him do, and yet he never showed her off. He couldn't show he was panicked, though, no. Because the others couldn't see it but Jen was worried. Worried about something with DiNozzo's assignment. Of course, when he was supposed to bring down an arms dealer, things were bound to get complicated.

Except DiNozzo wasn't answering his cell, either of them, and Jen was worried. Jen never worried unless something was seriously wrong. He had taught her well. Too well, it seemed. They found DiNozzo's car on the feed, and Gibbs noticed that there were a few similar cars in some of the frames, and at least one was bugging him. Was DiNozzo tailing someone?

Then a bright flash of light. Cars swerving out of the way of flames that were engulfing the very vehicle Gibbs and the others were tracking. Ziva's strangled gasp of, " _Tony!_ " The horror on Jen's face. Tim's shock as he stared at the feed, fire and smoke both billowing from the car. Gibbs' eyes went wide as he felt something inside him break. DiNozzo--Tony--his boy, his little boy and partner to the end of time, was in that car. The car that had just blown up on-screen. There was no way anyone could survive that kind of blast, that kind of flame. Tony was in that car.

Tony was dead.

Gibbs felt the need to collapse into his seat, but he couldn't do that, not with McGee nearby, lest his agent regress and be inconsolable. The last thing Jen needed was more blackmail material. That was the reason this happened.

Tony was dead...because of Jen.

Anger crashed into his brain like a tsunami on steroids. He wanted to kill someone in that moment. He might have, even, if he hadn't heard the very small, very scared, "Boss?" from the computer consoles.

Gibbs looked over and softened when he saw Timmy, looking very distressed and trying his hardest to be big but only succeeding in the way he spoke. "What...what do we do?"

"We go to the crime scene," Gibbs said simply. "We go to the scene, we investigate. We find out who did this and why."

"No...what do we do about...Tony?" Timmy asked.

Gibbs swallowed. All eyes in the room were now on him, awaiting his response. "We'll take it one step at a time, until everything is taken care of. Right now the first step is the crime scene."

Timmy nodded, standing up, with Ziva following suit. "I'll grab my gear," Timmy muttered.

Gibbs felt like he was floating as he followed the other two out. He was aware of Jen following them, but now was not the time to focus on her. He could deal with her later, right now his main priority had to be Tony, and the rest of the team.

They made good time to the scene, but once they got there, the world seemed to slow down again, and Gibbs was only seeing things in pieces. The firemen putting out the last few bursts of flame. The charred remains of the car. The charred remains of the  _body_  in the car. Tony's body. It still hadn't quite sunken in yet. He expected DiNozzo to round the corner with a smirk and a, "You really think I'd die so easily?" To see Tony somewhere nearby, startled out of his wits but alive, and safe.

"McGee," Gibbs prompted. He was still hoping that somewhere in all of this, they could gather up what they had left of their skills, their strength, their heads, and they'd figure out a way to avenge Tony's death. He turned to see both Timmy and Ziva staring at the charred car. Not that he could blame them, really. It was not a pretty sight. But they needed to put up a facade, just a little longer. That this hadn't shaken them to the core, that they could still function the rest of the day, before anyone asked for any time off. "McGee!" Gibbs barked.

Timmy finally turned to face him, looking just enough like his adult self that most people would be fooled into thinking nothing was wrong. Except him, and Ziva, and Ducky. He doubted Jen could notice the difference. "Take photos," Gibbs ordered.

Timmy nodded and fumbled with the camera, before starting to record evidence. Ducky showed up and started his preliminary findings, and even Jen was helping find some of the evidence. Gibbs couldn't tear his eyes from the scene. Not when Tim was talking about miracles, not when Jen found the timer, not when Ducky said that death would have been instant.

Jen left. "She blames herself," Ducky noted. He turned to Gibbs and noticed his hardened, angry gaze. "Should she?"

Gibbs took a shuddering breath. "Let me know when you finish the autopsy, Duck," he simply said.

Ziva had helped Timmy gather all their evidence and they were packing it into the truck. Gibbs drove them all back, white knuckles clinging to the wheel. He wasn't letting this one slide, not by a long shot. After he gave all the evidence to Abby, and made sure that Timmy and Ziva were at least under the guise of working, he was going to exact his revenge.

Of course, he should have seen it coming that by now half the Navy Yard had known what happened. Abby was on the verge of tears when he left her, talking about the prints on Jen's glass. He confronted Jen about it, and while she didn't deny it, she certainly didn't seem concerned enough that someone was trying to convince her that her father was alive. And that was the straw that broke the camel's back. He couldn't wait any longer even if he tried. She didn't even act like she was upset that Tony was dead. He stormed out of her office, already on his cellphone, ordering the poor secretary who answered his call to put him on the line with the SECNAV. He must have sounded particularly vicious, because he was put through without a question. "Gibbs," the SECNAV said without much amusement in his tone. "To what do I owe the pleasure?"

"You have a problem in NCIS, sir," Gibbs bit out. "The Director has been using NCIS funds and agents to further her own vendetta against an arms dealer,  _La Grenouille_."

There was a pregnant pause on the other end of the line. "This is a serious allegation, Agent Gibbs," the Secretary said. "Do you have any proof?"

"How's another agents dead body at the end of an unsanctioned Undercover Op?" Gibbs growled.

"If what you say is true, we have a serious breach in protocol, Agent Gibbs."

Gibbs bit back the urge to tear into SECNAV, after all, he hadn't been shown the proof yet. "Feel free to ask a few agents here who got wrapped up in her schemes what happened. Myself, Agent McGee, Liason Officer David, and our Medical Examiner, Doctor Mallard."

"And Agent DiNozzo?" the SECNAV asked. "I don't see why all of you would be wrapped up in this but not him."

Gibbs took a shuddering breath, the severity of the situation just barely starting to sink in as he had to utter the words aloud. "Agent DiNozzo is the one lying dead in autopsy," he ground out. "And if that's not enough motivation for you to take action, then I question your ability to do your job correctly."

He hung up without another word, and walked into the bullpen to find McGee and Ziva talking about how DiNozzo had to be tailing a limo that was on every camera. The Director followed him in, and he knew that she could tell he had done something, but she had no idea what yet. Well, good. Let her squirm.

Ducky came in as McGee finished talking about DiNozzo tailing the limousine, saying, "I'm sorry, Timothy, but he wasn't." Ducky continued by explaining how the man downstairs in autopsy wasn't Tony because he never had the plague, and Gibbs felt his knees go weak. Maybe miracles existed after all.

"If that's not Tony, then...who is it?" Jen asked.

Gibbs asked the question that seemed more pressing to him, and he assumed everyone else as well. "And where is DiNozzo?"

From that point forward, it was a quest to find DiNozzo. Tony. Tony, his little boy, was somehow alive. Alive, probably scared out of his wits somewhere in DC. They had to find him, and fast.

Trent Kort showed up, claiming the bomb was not the CIA's doing. But Gibbs was having none of his crap today, and as he was being escorted out, it happened. DiNozzo, seeming larger than life itself, was in the elevator car that Kort was about to use. There were questions thrown back and forth between the two of them, and Gibbs only really started to care about what they were saying when Kort slammed DiNozzo into the wall, at which point everyone with a gun on them pointed it at Kort. DiNozzo hadn't come back to them from the dead only to be taken away from them just as quickly again. Kort left, DiNozzo stayed. And Gibbs didn't care if it went against policy. The second the elevator doors had closed, he walked over and hugged DiNozzo. The man laughed. "Wow, Boss, I had no idea I was missed so much."

Gibbs broke away from the hug, feeling like reality was starting to make sense again, the little details finally coming back into more focus. Jen said, "DiNozzo, my office for a sitrep, now."

DiNozzo sent Gibbs a look and Gibbs just shrugged.  _I'll go with you._

The grateful smile he got in return made the whole day worth it.

* * *

Jen was not pleased that DiNozzo was only giving her the bare bones of what happened, but really, that's all she needed to know, so Gibbs wasn't going to help her on that one. Especially not after later that night, when she was fully prepared to shoot the arms dealer who had gotten them into this whole mess in the first place.

Gibbs ran a hand over his face as he walked to his house from his car. He really didn't get paid enough for this.

The first thing he noticed when he walked in the house was that the lights were on. The second thing he noticed was the sounds of chatter from the living room, and laughter that he had learned to love over the years. The third thing he noticed was that he had suddenly been attacked by nearly two-hundred pounds of Tony in a bear hug. Gibbs sighed into Tony's hair. "Hey buddy," he said softly. "How you doing?"

"Better now that Papa's here," Tony said, voice slightly muffled from him basically speaking into Gibbs' chest. "I figured tonight was not gonna be a good night an' I wan-ed to have some help, and everyone else decided that they wanted to come to your place too, except you weren't here."

"Yeah, I had to do a couple more things that had to deal with the Director, but it's over now," Gibbs said.

Tony looked up at him. "Over?" he asked.

"Mm-hm," Gibbs said, leading Tony into the living room, where Timmy, Abby, and Jimmy were playing. "I talked to the SECNAV today, told him about what Jen's been doing. He's putting a stop to it. No more undercover missions like that for you. Not only that, but Jen is in huge trouble for doing it in the first place. They might not be firing her right this instant, but she is being put on a very short leash, and everything she says is going to be closely examined. Which means she can't blackmail any of us anymore."

"Seriously?!" Timmy asked from the floor of the living room, excited.

"Seriously," Gibbs agreed. "We're all in the clear. No more meddling and plotting and scheming."

Tony looked like he was about to cry in relief. Timmy and Abby cheered, giving each other high-fives. Jimmy grinned from ear to ear. Ziva walked in from the kitchen. "Ah, Gibbs, you're back. Is that why there is all this commotion?"

"Papa made sure the Director can't blackmail us anymore! And got her in trouble with SECNAV!" Tony exclaimed.

Ziva looked at Gibbs and gave him one of her rare genuine smiles. "Thank you, Gibbs," she said.

"Well I couldn't just let her get away with this," Gibbs said simply. "Ducky in the kitchen?"

Ziva nodded. "I will tell him, you take some time with the kids," she said.

Gibbs waved her off and sat on the couch, Tony curling up in his lap. "Today was scary," Tony said.

"It was scary for all of us," Gibbs said. "But I can't imagine what it must have felt like to be right there during the explosion."

"Not that," Tony said. "That was scary, but I couldn' get back right away. Didn' want you all to think I was dead and move on."

Gibbs kissed Tony's forehead. "Hey, did any of us really do that?"

"Stole my stuff," Tony grumbled.

"Oh," Gibbs said. "Well, you remember how we kept Pooky from when Katie was around?"

Tony hesitantly nodded.

"That was our way of having something to remember her by. In the time where we all thought you were dead, everyone was looking for a way to remember you. Ziva took your letter opener so she could fight in your honor. Ducky took your stapler because you kept us together for so long. Palmer took your mug so that he could have a reminder of you every morning when he got up and got ready to work. Everyone wanted to remember you in their own ways. We weren't trying to move on, we were trying to...keep you with us," Gibbs said.

Tony didn't say anything for a little while, and when Gibbs looked down there were tears in his eyes. "I've never had people want to remember me before," he mumbled.

Gibbs hugged Tony tight. "We're a family, kid," he murmured. "Families don't just move on when they lose one of their own. You're important, Tony. To all of us."

Tony cried quietly while the others played on the floor. Timmy noticed first and brought over his blanket for Tony to hug. Abby gave him a huge hug herself when she saw, and Jimmy gave Tony his keys, "In case you need them tonight."

Gibbs knew Tony was a little overwhelmed with all this new information and everyone helping him in their own ways, so he didn't force Tony into anything aside from eating a little bit at dinner. Ducky took Abby and Jimmy home after dinner, and Gibbs got his kids ready for bed. As he did it, he found himself smiling at nothing again. Tony, his little boy, his partner of seven years and beyond was still alive. He still wasn't quite sold on miracles, but he was certainly overjoyed that Tony was still with them. After all, they were family, and no one liked to bury one of their own.

**Author's Note:**

> Guys I can't believe we've reached _two years_ of working on this series and posting it! I'm beyond overjoyed and the fact that the ideas aren't slowing down just makes me that much happier! Thank you all for being here during this wonderful ride, and I hope to see you in the stories to come!


End file.
